10 Reasons to Make Your Offertory Contribution Through Faith Direct

Join your fellow parishioners using Faith Direct for their parish giving. Visit www.faithdirect.net or call 1.866.507.8757 toll-free for information or help, or pick up a form at the Information Wall by the WelcomeCenter. St. Paul’s parish code is TX596. 1. No more checks to write or envelopes to find. 2. 52 weeks of predictable income for St. Paul. 3. Greater security than cash or checks. 4. No cost to you to participate. 5. Online control of your offertory giving – including special collections. 6. Reduction of envelope and postage expense to St. Paul. 7. More time for office staff to tend to other parish needs. 8. Continual access to current information regarding your contributions and taxes thru your account. 9. If you choose, Faith Direct provides you with offertory basket cards. 10. Father Wencil is enrolled in Faith Direct!!

Parish Code TX596

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Now Accepting American Express

AMERICAN EXPRESS CREDIT CARDSt. Paul has received a very favorable rate for American Express credit card transactions. Therefore effective immediately we will accept this credit card in addition to MasterCard, Discover and Visa. This applies to all transactions including thru Faith Direct.

Did You Know?

Worship, Celebration of Marriages and FUN at Deacon’s Dinner and Dance!Organized by St. Paul’s Multicultural Ministry.The evening of December 9, many of St. Paul’s couples joined together to celebrate their vocation as a couple. The evening was filled with Joy as our Deacons and their Wives shared stories of their own vocation in the Sacrament of Marriage. The evening progressed with delicious Food, Music and Dancing.

An additional Gift from all who attended and made this Night come together --- $2,408 donation to our church’s Building Loan Principal!!! In all we do and share we are indeed blessed to be Brothers and Sisters of our St. Paul’s Spiritual Family!

MARIANAS,

THANK YOU!

Thank you for the fruits of your labor. The Marianas women's group made a $7,000 donation to assist with the Building Debt Reduction. We are very honored and appreciate all that the Marianas do to bless not only the women of this parish but also the blessing they are to Our Spiritual Home.

As a church community we have once again together, done more than any one of us could do alone! For months much effort has been put into renewal of our blessed Mother’s Peace Garden. Our sister in Christ, Stephanie Colelli, with inspiration and non-ending energy and effort brought this project to life. The Youth Group began advertisement and sales of the bricks at our Festival last October. Many of our brothers and sisters planned and physically labored on this project which resulted in the beautiful, peaceful tribute to our dear Mother now on our church grounds. And YOU, our St. Paul's Family, with purchase of your own engraved bricks honoring your loved ones, have provided a phenomenal payment to decrease our total building loan debt. $185,830 were raised in the the sale of 323 bricks. Of that $185,830, $170,720 has been received with $15,110 still pending payments. Expenses of renewal of the Peace Garden were $20,196. Last week we made a $150,000 payment to our loan principle! That is the equivalent of about 5 monthly payments to the principle which saves us approximately $36,700 in interest payments. As additional income is received these will also be sent in as extra payments to our loan principle. There is still space in the garden and we are continuing to take orders. Order forms are on the Forms Wall outside the church, and you can call the Welcome Desk for information. Again, a huge thank you for what you have helped us do for this church need, and thank you for the beauty and spiritual family community which is reflected in our Peace Garden.

WOO HOO!!!Thank You for helping me help our parish home!! With your donations we raised $1,241.50 for the October monthly building loan payment!! Thanks!

Our Spiritual Home Nuestro Hogar Espiritual St. Paul Ministry Groups Donate to maintain church facilities and help make building loan payments. In addition to contributions from individual families and parishioners, various groups that use St. Paul facilities for their ministries also contribute funds to pay the loan and maintain the facilities operational. Since kick off of this year’s Building Debt Reduction Appeal in April, contributions have been received from the ACTS team, the High Nooners, Espacio de Dios and Youth Praise Camp Parents. Thank you members of these groups. You help maintain this Home which provides us a place for worship in our groups of children, friends and common interests as we join as a Spiritual Family to deliver God’s gifts to each others.

Of 146 parishes in the Galveston Houston Archdiocese, St. Paul is one of only 31 parishes to have been awarded a full 5% (the maximum rebate amount,) due to meeting 100% of Archdiocese criteria for Disaster Recovery and Preventive Maintenance programs. This is the second consecutive year that we achieve this acknowledgement and a full rebate. St. Paul pays approximately $47,500 annually on Property Insurance to protect our church structure and its contents in the event of damage or theft. The rebate represents a $2,400 annual savings to parish operational expenses. Thank you Alex De Leon from our parish staff for organizing and coordinating these efforts. Marcus Michna chairs our Disaster and Recovery Committee and Don Johnson is chair of our Preventive Maintenance Committee. Other members on these two committees include Brian Walters, Charles Campise, David Osina and Ken Desert. Thank you for your significant gifts of Time and Talent to a critical area of maintaining our facilities and helping us satisfy requirements for this full rebate!

St. Paul’s vending machine located by Beck Hall is actually costing the Parish money. In spite of some price adjustments and varying items stocked, over the years its use has declined and it is not uncommon to have to discard some due to expiration dates. In the past fiscal year, money from the vending machine has actually only paid for 53% of the cost to the church of keeping it stocked – and that doesn’t include the cost of staff members’ time to keep the machine stocked, and collect, count and deposit monies from the machine. This fiscal year alone (July 2014 to June 2015,) the church will have paid close to $6,600 to keep the machine stocked, with monies collected from the vending items at $3,500. So once currently stocked, non-expired items are depleted, the machine will not be restocked. The good news? It will be donated to the Youth group for its Garage Sale fundraiser in June.

Since we kicked off our Building Loan Reduction Appeal, Parishioners have answered Personal Calls to action with additional contributions to pay for our Home. In these short 4 weeks your additional donations will help us make an entire month’s payment without use of parish or ministry operational funds. Thank YOU. You reaffirm that we don’t need an ex-pensive Capital Campaign 3 to generate pledges – you are simply and directly taking care of the needs of our church. Please remember that the Finance Council asked that each household participate in this challenge until our debt is paid, and the quicker we pay it the more we save in interest payments which equal $8,000/month or $96,000/year. Pew Envelope Donations Week 1 $ 2,700 Week 2 $15,000 Week 3 $ 200 Week 4 $ 170 Special 1 Time Donation $20,000

2015 is the 10 th anniversary of ACTS retreats at St. Paul; with approximately 1,500 retreatants and an even greater number of team members, whose collective efforts contribute to the powerful conversion experience of those retreats. Members of the ACTS community volunteer in virtually every facet of parish life. Our ACTS brothers and sisters were key in the clean-up and repairs of the old church as it was transformed to Founder’s Hall. Currently the ACTS group has donated a $10,000 gift for new lighting in Beck Hall. It is through the collective efforts of our parish family’s gifts of Time, Talent and Treasure that St. Paul thrives.

Each week we come together to praise God, bring Him our sorrows and joys, seek comfort and renewal. We leave spiritually refreshed to spread His presence through our deeds and interactions. An average 2000 attend Mass each weekend at St. Paul. Our 5 Masses are the result of the gifts of Time and Talent from many: our Priest, Deacons, Altar Servers, Ushers, Choir Members, Eucharistic Ministers, Lectors, Parish staff, Sound System Volunteers, Nursery Workers, Volunteers who provide Missalettes, Hosts, Wine, and Flowers and Candles that help create the environment for our worship. Music Liscensing Fees, Cleaning and Repair of Vestments, Altar Linens, and many other “backgroud items” make the Mass come together to total an average $16,000/year. Thank you for your gifts of Treasure which help provide the environmemt that gives us our weekly spiritual nourishment.

Building Debt Reduction$37,250/MonthIf 1 person in each of our almost 2400 registered households gave up 1 $4.00 treat each week and added that amount to the collection to help pay our building loan, that amount would equal to $41,600 each month!! CanYOUincrease your building fund support by that amount? By more?

St. Paul’s church facilities are blessed with continuous activity of its spiritual family sharing worship, ministry, joy and comfort. We also provide facilities for St. Vincent de Paul to service our brothers and sisters in need. Church buildings are in use regularly 8:00 AM to 9:00 PM, 7 days/week. Sometimes even earlier and with activities that can go well into the night with lights out finally at 10:00 PM, 11:00 PM and even 12:00 AM.

In the past year St. Paul’s electricity bill has averaged $5210/month. With it being as high as $6,344 during the hot summer months.